# List of translations of Beowulf

This is a list of translations of Beowulf, one of the best-known Old English heroic epic poems. Beowulf has been translated many times in verse and in prose. By 2020, the Beowulf's Afterlives Bibliographic Database listed some 688 translations and other versions of the poem, from Thorkelin's 1787 transcription of the text, and in at least 38 languages.
The poet John Dryden's categories of translation have influenced how scholars discuss variation between translations and adaptations. In the Preface to Ovid's Epistles (1680) Dryden proposed three different types of translation:
   metaphrase [...] or turning an author word for word, and line by line, from one language into another; paraphrase [...] or translation with latitude, where the author is kept in view by the translator so as never to be lost, but his words are not so strictly followed as his sense, and that, too, is admitted to be amplified but not altered; and imitation [...] where the translator – if he has not lost that name – assumes the liberty not only to vary from the words and sense, but to forsake them both as he sees occasion; and taking only some general hints from the original, to run division on the ground-work, as he pleases.
The works listed below may fall into more than one of Dryden's categories, but works that are essentially direct translations are listed here. Versions of other kinds that take more "latitude" are listed at List of adaptations of Beowulf.

## Translations

There are hundreds of translations or near-translations of Beowulf, and more are added each year, so a complete list may well be unattainable. Listed here are the major versions discussed by scholars, along with the first versions in different languages.

### English Translations

| Date | Title | Translator | Location | Publisher | Type | Notes |
| 1837 | Beowulf | Kemble, John Mitchell | London | William Pickering | Prose | First complete translation into modern English; archaizing, and translating word-for-word. The 1st ed. in 1833 had no translation. |
| 1849 | Beowulf, an epic poem translated from the Anglo-Saxon into English verse | Wackerbarth, A. Diedrich | London | William Pickering | Verse | Walter Scott-like romance verse using rhyme and modern metre (iambic tetrameters), no attempt to imitate alliterative verse |
| 1855 | Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf | Thorpe, Benjamin | Oxford | James Wright | Verse, prosaic | Parallel text, with "literal" translation "reading like prose ... chopped up into short lines" as if verse |
| 1876 | Beowulf: a Heroic Poem of the Eighth Century, with a translation | Arnold, Thomas, the Younger | London | Longmans, Green | Prose | An archaizing version, translating word-for-word. |
| 1881 | Beowulf: an old English poem, translated into modern rhymes | Lumsden, Henry William | London | Kegan Paul | Verse | |
| 1882 | Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon poem, & the Fight at Finnsburg | Garnett, James Mercer, the younger | Boston | Ginn, Heath, & Co. | Verse | "With facsimile of the unique manuscript in the British Museum". |
| 1888 | I. Beówulf: an Anglo-Saxon poem. II. The Fight at Finnsburh: a fragment | Harrison, James Albert; Moritz Heyne; Robert Sharp | Boston | X. Ginn & Co. | Prose | Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary |
| 1892 | The Deeds of Beowulf | Earle, John | Oxford | Clarendon Press | Prose | An archaizing version. |
| 1894 | Beowulf | Wyatt, Alfred John | Cambridge | Cambridge University Press | Prose | Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary |
| 1895 | The tale of Beowulf sometime King of the folk of the Weder Geats | Morris, William; Alfred John Wyatt | London | Longman | Verse | "Genuinely foreignizing ... medievalizes" in a distinctive style, with "breaking rhythms and irregular syntax ... an insistently archaizing diction and a striking literalism to produce a defamiliarizing effect". |
| 1897 | Beowulf: an Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem | Hall, John Lesslie | Lexington | D. C. Heath | Verse | |
| 1901 | Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg | Hall, J. R. Clark | Cambridge | Cambridge University Press | Prose | A literal approach, somewhat archaic; smoother and more uniform than Kemble. "One of the most enduringly popular of all translations of the poem". |
| 1910 | Beowulf | Gummere, Francis B. | New York | The Collier Press | Verse | The Harvard Classics, Charles W. Eliot, (Ed.) |
| 1910 | Beowulf | Sedgefield, Walter John | Manchester | University of Manchester | Prose | Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary |
| 1913 | The Story of Beowulf | Kirtlan, Ernest John Brigham | London | C. H. Kelly | Prose | Decorated and designed by Frederick Lawrence. |
| 1914 | Beowulf. A Metrical Translation into Modern English | Hall, J. R. Clark | Cambridge | Cambridge University Press | Verse | |
| 1921 | Widsith; Beowulf; Finnsburgh; Waldere; Dior [sic], done into Common English after the Old Manner | Charles Scott Moncrieff | London | Chapman and Hall | Verse | With an introduction from Lord Northcliffe. Moncrieff had studied Old English at the University of Edinburgh in 1913. |
| 1922 | Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg | Klaeber, Frederick | Boston | D. C. Heath and Company | Prose | Classic, continuously in print through 4 editions. Not exactly a translation. Annotated text and long glossary |
| 1923 | The Story of Beowulf and Grendel. Retold in modern English prose | Spencer, Richard Augustus | London, Edinburgh | W. & R. Chambers | Prose | |
| 1923 | The Song of Beowulf rendered into English prose | Gordon, R. K. | London | J.M. Dent & Sons | Prose | |
| 1925 | Beowulf. Translated into modern English rhyming verse | Strong, Archibald | London | Constable | Verse | |
| 1926 | Beowulf. Translated into English verse | Crawford, D. H. | London | Chatto & Windus | Verse | |
| 1933 | The Story of Beowulf. Retold from the ancient epic | Riggs, Strafford | New York | D. Appleton-Century | | Decorated by Henry Clarence Pitz. |
| 1940 | Beowulf. the oldest English epic. Translated into alliterative verse with a critical introduction | Kennedy, Charles W. | New York | Oxford University Press | Verse, alliterative | OCLC 185407779. |
| 1945 | Beowulf. In modern verse with an essay and pictures | Bone, Gavin David | Oxford | Basil Blackwell | Verse | |
| 1949 | Beowulf in Modern English. A translation in blank verse | Waterhouse, Mary Elizabeth | Cambridge | Bowes & Bowes | Verse, blank | |
| 1952 | Beowulf: A Verse Translation into Modern English | Morgan, Edwin | Berkeley | University of California Press | Verse | Based on Klaeber's text; "of special significance in its own right but also as the beginning of translation of Beowulf into a genuinely modern poetic idiom, leading the way for many later followers down to and beyond Seamus Heaney". |
| 1953 | Beowulf, with the Finnsburg fragment | Wrenn, C. L. | London | George G. Harrap & Co. | | Wrenn was one of the Inklings. |
| 1953 | Beowulf and Judith | Dobbie, Elliott van Kirk | New York | Columbia University Press | | |
| 1954 | Beowulf the Warrior | Serraillier, Ian | Oxford | Oxford University Press | | Illustrated by John Severin. |
| 1957 | Beowulf | Wright, David | Harmondsworth | Penguin Classics | Prose | Reprinted by Panther Books, 1970 |
| 1963 | Beowulf | Raffel, Burton | New York | Signet Classics | Verse | Raffel writes in his essay "On Translating Beowulf" that the poet-translator "needs to master the original in order to leave it". |
| 1966 | Beowulf | Donaldson, Ethelbert Talbot | London | Longman | Prose | Widely read in The Norton Anthology of English Literature; accurate, "foreignizing" prose, using asyndetic coordination, "somewhat ponderous but ... dignified tone ... viewed by teachers as dull". |
| 1968 | Beowulf | Crossley-Holland, Kevin | London | Macmillan | | OCLC 1200055128 |
| 1968 | Beowulf and its Analogues | Garmonsway, George N. | London | J.M. Dent & Sons | Prose | Hugh Magennis calls this "much-used"; Michael J. Alexander says it has "dignity and rhythmical shape". |
| 1973 | Beowulf: A Verse Translation | Alexander, Michael J. | Harmondsworth | Penguin Classics | Verse | Closely "shadows" the original |
| 1977 | Beowulf: A Dual-Language Edition | Howell D. Chickering | New York | Anchor Books | Verse | |
| 1983 | Beowulf: a Verse Translation with Treasures of the Ancient North | Osborn, Marijane | Berkeley | University of California Press | Verse | |
| 1985 | A Readable Beowulf | Greenfield, Stanley B. | Carbondale | Southern Illinois University Press | | "Simultaneously a poem and, by virtue of the nature of translation, an act of criticism".(Greenfield, p. ix) |
| 1991 | Beowulf: A Verse Translation | Rebsamen, Frederick | New York | HarperCollins | Verse | imitates original's poetic form as closely as possible, with alliterative half-lines; seven prose sections interrupt the translation, instead of using footnotes |
| 1991 | Beowulf: Text and Translation | Porter, John | Hockwold-cum-Wilton | Anglo-Saxon Books | Verse | Parallel text; "the most literal" |
| 1999 | Beowulf: A Translation in Progress | Romano, Tim | Swarthmore, Pennsylvania | | Verse | The translation seeks to bring over into modern English the carved syntax of the original poetry without things becoming too "wooden". url=https://timromano.org/beowulf/beowulf_trans.htm |
| 1999 | Beowulf: A New Verse Translation | Heaney, Seamus | London | Faber | Verse | |
| 2000 | Beowulf | Liuzza, Roy M. | Peterborough, Ontario | Broadview Press | | Parallel text. 2nd edition 2013 |
| 2012 | Beowulf: A Translation | Meyer, Thomas | Santa Barbara, California | Punctum Books | | |
| 2013 | Grinnell Beowulf: A Translation with Notes | Arner, Timothy D.; Eva Dawson; Emily Johnson; Jeanette Miller; Logan Shearer; Aniela Wendt; Kate Whitman | Grinnell, Iowa | Grinnell College Press | Verse | Illustrated translation and teaching edition. |
| 2013 | Beowulf | Purvis, Meghan | London | Penned in the Margins | Verse | A collection of connected poems, or read as one long poem. "The Collar" won The Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation, 2011 and the collection was Poetry Book Society recommended translation, Summer 2013. |
| 2014 [1926] | Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary | Tolkien, J. R. R. | London | HarperCollins | Prose | Translated 1920–1926, edited by Christopher Tolkien, published posthumously with "Sellic Spell", a version reconstructed as an Anglo-Saxon folktale, i.e. without the heroic elements |
| 2017 | Beowulf | Mitchell, Stephen | New Haven, Connecticut | Yale University Press | | |
| 2020 | Beowulf: A New Translation | Headley, Maria Dahvana | London | Macmillan | Verse | It translates the opening Hwæt as "Bro!" Won the 2021 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award and the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Related Work. |
| 2021 | 'Beowulf' By All: Community Translation and Workbook | Abbott, Jean; Treharne, Elaine, and Fafinski, Mateusz (Eds.) | Leeds | Arc Humanities Press | | Translated by over 200 contributors. An earlier version appeared in 2018, as Beowulf by All, Version 1.0 from Stanford TexT (of Stanford University Press). |
| 2022 | After Beowulf | Nicole Markotić | Toronto, Canada | Coach House Books | Verse | |

### Other Languages

| Date | Title | Translator | Location | Publisher | Language | Type | Notes |
| 1815 | De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III & IV. Poema danicum dialecto anglo-saxonica. Ex bibliotheca Cottoniana Musaei britannici edidit versione lat. et indicibus auxit Grim. Johnson Thorkelin. | Thorkelin, Grímur Jónsson | Copenhagen | Th. E. Rangel | Latin | Prose | Transcription (full of errors) and first translation (considered poor) |
| 1820 | Bjowulf's Drape | Grundtvig, Nikolaj Frederik Severin | Copenhagen | A. Seidelin | Danish | Verse | First version in a modern language, "a free paraphrase in a rhyming ballad metre" |
| 1863 | Beowulf, mit ausführlichem Glossar | Heyne, Moritz | Paderborn | Ferdinand Schoningh | German | | |
| 1920 | Byovulpu caritramu: vacana kavyamu | Kesava Pillai, Rayapeta | Madras | R. Purushottam & Co. | Telugu | | OCLC 499929509 |
| 1932 | Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg | Kuriyagawa, Fumio | Tokyo | Iwanami | Japanese | | Parallel text with Old English. OCLC 556817509. |
| 1951 | La gesta de Beowulf | Borges, Jorge Luis; Delia Ingenieros | Mexico City | Fondo de Cultura Económica | Spanish | | |
| 1954 | Beowulf | Collinder, Björn | Stockholm | Natur och Kultur | Swedish | Verse, alliterative | Illustrated by Per Engström. |
| 1959 | Beowulf: poema eroico anglosassone | Cecioni, Cesare G. | Bologna | Edizioni Giuseppe Malipiero | Italian | Prose | |
| 1969 | Beowulf | Duțescu, Dan and Levițchi, Leon | Bucharest | Editura pentru literatură universală | Romanian | Verse | First and only translation in Romanian. Using alliteration and triple meters, as they are considered closer to the heroic tradition in the target literature. |
| 1975 | Beowulf | В. Тихомиров | Moscow | Издательство «Художественная литература» | Russian | Verse | Includes translation of "Elder Edda". |
| 1982 | Beovulf: Staroengleski junački spev i odlomci iz junačkih pesama | Kovačević, Ivanka | Belgrade | Narodna knjiga | Serbian | Prose | With translations of "The Fight at Finnsburg", "Widsith", "Exodus", "The Battle of Brunanburh", "The Battle of Maldon" |
| 1986 | Beowulf: Részletek | Képes, Júlia; Weöres Sándor; András T. László | Budapest | Európa Könyvkiadó | Hungarian | Verse, alliterative | Excerpts (10 pages). |
| 1990 | Beowulf: anglosaksi eepos | Sepp, Rein | Tallinn | Eesti Raamat | Estonian | Verse | imitates original's poetic form as closely as possible, with half-lines |
| 1992 | 贝奥武甫：古英语史诗 | Feng, Xiang | Beijing | SDX Joint Publishing | Simplified Chinese | Verse | First translation from Old English, with Finnsburh fragment. |
| 1996 | Μπέογουλφ: Αγγλο-σαξονικό επικό ποίημα Béowoulf: Anglo-saxonikó epikó poéima | Karagiórgos, Pános | Thessaloniki | Kyriakides | Greek | | Title reads "Beowulf: Anglo-Saxon epic poem". |
| 1999 | Beowulf | Pekonen, Osmo; Clive Tolley | Porvoo | WSOY | Finnish | Verse | with Finnsburh fragment. OCLC 58326940 |
| 2007 | Beowulf | Ramalho, Erick | Belo Horizonte, Brazil | Tessitura Editora | Portuguese | | Parallel text with Old English |
| 2012 | Беовульф | Олена О'Лір | Львів | Астролябія | Ukrainian | Verse | |
| 2013 | Бэўвульф | Брыль, Антон Францішак | Мінск | Зміцер Колас | Belarussian | Verse | |
| 2017 | Beovulfs | Linde, Māris | Riga | Linde | Latvian | Verse, in half-lines | Compared with Latvian folktales Lāčplēsis and Kurbads. |